Chelsea, under the temporary stewardship of Roberto Di Matteo, looked to have a massive task ahead of them on Wednesday night, with visitors Napoli taking a 3-1 advantage to Stamford Bridge from the first leg of the last 16 Champions League tie.

However, inspired (somewhat ironically) by some of the players who Andre Villas-Boas wanted to jettison, the Blues gave the Italian side a right good thrashing, winning 4-1 on the night to take their place as England’s sole representatives in the last eight.

Didier Drogba (who was guilty of some appalling play-acting and diving later on) got the ball rolling for the Blues just before the half-hour mark, heading home a Ramires centre which came totally against the run of play. Edison Cavani and co. had come close to breaking the deadlock, but the home side went in at the break a goal up.

Another one of the Chelsea (almost) pensioners, John Terry, netted just three minutes after the break, from a Frankie Lamps’ corner and suddenly the comeback was on. However, seven minutes later, Swiss dynamo Gokhan Inler got one back for the Italians, leaving the aggregate score at 4-3 to the visitors.

Then, with 15 minutes left on the clock, former Liverpool man Andrea Dossena handled in the Napoli box and Lampard powered home the spot-kick to level the tie and force another half-hour of action.

Injury time saw both sides going close before, in the 105th minutes, the outstanding Branislav Ivanovic blasted home to give the Blues’ faithful something to cheer about.

Chelsea go through, with Roman Abramovich no doubt feeling somewhat vindicated by his decision to axe AVB. Oh, Fernando Torres came on in the second half. And didn’t score. Again.

in fairness i thought Torres had a decent game when he came on, granted he could have scored the chance when the keeper came out but was a tight angle at pace. other than that i thought he made some decent runs and at least looked like he cared

There was a lot of play acting from a lot of people on both teams. But please, I beg of you, find video or pictures or any evidence of Drogba’s Busquets-esque peek-a-boo act from late in the game just so I can assure myself that it wasn’t a mere hallucination.

You were not hallucinating. Drogs actually DID open one eye as he was laying on the floor. He opened one eye and looked straight at the TV camera, as if he knew the camera was on him. It was a very eerie thing to see.

Jim Bone,
“Drogba clearly only dived to waste a bit of time, and it was only in the last 10 mins of extra time”
So he was diving, and wasting time, but because it was at the end of the game that’s ok?
He was hardly going to be wasting time at the start of the game or when Napoli were ahead was he?
He’s a disgwace!

agreed with the earlier comment.. how can someone seriously claim that it is right to dive and play act as long as its “at the end of the game.” what a joke!! put urself in the napolis shoes. say next round chelsea face madrid and with madrid up late in the game ronaldo starts play acting and wasting time.. i assume u will be ok with that??

Anyone who still holds grudges against drogba for diving doesn’t watch football. He’s grown up so much over the last few seasons in that respect, with only the odd lapse. As an english man who wanted an english team in the last 8 I have to say, although I don’t agree with it, the times where drogba was on the floor towards the end were the only times I wasn’t nervous.

also i knew this whole ‘old guard’ stuff would get wheeled out extensively. I think it’s a bit unfair on all the other players who played out their skins. People say drogba was unplayable but he could barely keep hold of the ball for the first 25. David Luiz was immense, even when he could barely walk in the second half of extra time. But everyone put a shift in.